A little scream followed, and a whispered consultation, and then a
girl's bare feet, beautifully moulded, slowly descended the steep
stairway, and next a slender, graceful body came into view, and finally
a face, delicious as a ripe peach, looked once at the intruder below,
and all the pink and bright color faded from it to see, standing there,
where Ebenezer Johnson had given up the ghost, a stalwart effigy,
bandaged in white all round the head, and over the left eye and cheek,
where the dead river-pirate had received his double bullet, the blood
was hideously matted and not wholly stanched even yet. She sank slowly
down upon the steps and saw no more.
"Now, if I don't git out, the dogs will be set loose," muttered Jimmy,
as he disappeared up the farm-house lane and put the barn and pound
between him and the house; and scarcely had he done so when Levin Dennis
appeared coming down the stairs, all unconscious of the apparition, and,
finding the beautiful girl insensible, he raised her in his arms and
stole a kiss.
Paying for his one act of deceit by losing the principal object of his
quest, Jimmy Phoebus stopped a minute by Ebenezer Johnson's grave.
In a level field of deep sand--the soil here being the poorest in the
region--and between the cattle-pound and the pines, which were
everywhere jealous of their other indigenous brother, the Indian corn,
an old family burial-lot lay under some low cedar-trees, with wild berry
bushes growing all around.
Pages:
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363